Exports

The composition of commodity (also called visible) exports
shifted over time. Before World War II, raw cotton made up 90
percent of total export value, but by 1970 it had dropped to 45
percent. Cotton textiles, meanwhile, rose to represent 16 percent
in 1970. In the 1970s and 1980s, oil and petroleum products
dominated the export list, reaching about 79 percent of the total
in 1985. This share, however, fell with the drop in oil prices in
1986 (see
table 10, Appendix).

Non-oil exports stagnated and in some years decreased. For
example, textile exports fell from US$267 million in 1979 to US$199
million in 1983. They increased after the government gave
incentives to exporters, permitting them to retain their foreignexchange earnings and to convert them at the free-market rate. The
drop in the oil price in 1986, however, led to a serious decline of
roughly 22 percent in the overall value of exports between 1985 and
1988. Economists advised that the country should strive to increase
exports of textiles and other manufactured products in the long
run, because of the volatility of raw material prices and the
potential rapid depletion of some natural resources, especially
oil.

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